A Fond Farewell...to an Outlet Store?

Time for a little insight into a personal favorite pastime of mine. A place I enjoyed visiting every time I'm in St. Augustine. Something that I've had about sixteen years worth of memories, believe it or not. And today, the realization that has hit somewhat hard: the Disney outlet is closing in late September.

This is what greeted me today.

Keep in mind those black curtains aren't normal.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I knew about the closure since May, thanks to a longtime CM friend who worked there for 15 years. And as someone who had stuck around since 1999, I remembered the sinking feeling, the sudden shock when the bomb dropped.

Now you're asking, why the memories, or even bother to care, over a store? Would you believe that I probably wouldn't have been so interested in everything Disney in the first place?

This would've been great except if it wasn't those bold colors and large fond that screamed CLOSURE 

You see, 1999 was a strange year for me. I remember the transition to the Millennium as a promise of a brighter future, yet I was a mess. I remember a rebel phase I was undergoing back in elementary school, where I didn't want to play the good student and wanted to be independent and carefree, and was constantly in trouble. I won't bore you with other details except this one tidbit: Even though one of my first movie memories was watching Beauty and the Beast and one of my first toys as a baby a Mickey Mouse plush, Disney was not something I had bothered with until this period of my life. It was just there. I watched the Sing-A-Longs, but the memories were as brief as I could've remembered. But on one spontaneous moment after a bad day, I remember popping in a VHS tape about Walt Disney World my parents received in the mail but didn't bother to open. I was captivated, seeing the new attractions and experiences offered. I also recall popping in the Disneyland Sing-A-Longs tape afterwards and letting the memory of first watching it flood back as the characters danced and interacted with the lucky kids at Disneyland in the video.

Half the store is shuttered.

I felt like discovering Disney around that time was like finding an identity in what I liked and in a way, kind of helped me in becoming less troublesome by using my initial fascination with Disney as positive reinforcement. This is when I begin to visit the parks on a blue moon occasion with an Annual Pass (of course this was when it was actually affordable), especially EPCOT, with the Millennium Celebration underway. I remember this ultimatum vividly: improve my grades or the AP is cut.

Shirts and jackets. Of course all Small, Medium and Large. No XL or XXL.

I of course was determined to keep going to Kissimmee and see all the "cool stuff" in the parks, so I obliged. It took a couple months but soon enough, my rebellious phase diminished and my grades did indeed improved. I wound up being on the Honor Roll for the rest of the year in fact, something that is more or less the equivalent of the Dean's List.

But sometimes the drive was too long or the weather too dangerous. My mother then learned about the Disney Character Premiere through word of mouth at the parks, perhaps at Magic Kingdom, when the subject of then-newly-introduced pin trading was becoming a hot commodity with all the pins being introduced every month. Upon learning of the DCP's existence, we knew we had to go check it out.

I remember the entrance, the purple and yellow theater mock-up beckoning guests to come in, the film reels and popcorn buckets full of fake popcorn string decorating the walls and shelves while Disney movie posters (and later on cutouts like the Doll & Teddy Bear Convention logo with Mickey on a front wall) spread out around the room. And of course, the inside was brimming with multicolored varieties of merchandise with people browsing and buying, coming in and out.

Actual distance of shirt racks. A LOT is gone, man.

We were amazed with the selection available, and for cheap. But the best thing at the time was a pin rack, some pins introduced earlier in the year, for cheap. When I say cheap, I mean some of the were a dime each. They were just introducing the concept of "trade nights" as well at the store every Friday evening too, to compensate for the rate of pins being pushed out during that year and being sent to the outlet. Of course we had to check it out. I like to believe this is where my obsession of Disney pins started, and ran a course of almost a decade.

Kid's clothes. Very bare indeed.

And with a lot of merchandise coming directly from the parks, I discovered that as a kid I didn't need to go see the icons and ride the attractions down in south Florida to say I was there. Yeah, it's discounted merchandise, but at the time it was being able to get something from the parks without the long drives, weather or even the crowds of people and strollers. It occurred to me as I'm typing all of this that as the same positive reinforcement allowed a day at the parks, it was the same for going there too. It's still the WDW connection, and kid me wanted to preserve the opportunity.

However, behavioral and educational changes is but one reason for my fascination with this shop. It also just happened to be one of the reasons why I have such an obsession with Pluto.

You can see the back area thru the curtains. Note the mannequins, rarely used in-store.

This blog claims that he is the best Disney character. But much like my interest in the parks, I had never been a Pluto fan all my life. Sure one of my first toys was a little toy gym with a rubber Pluto and a baby Pluto puzzle, yet he was just another Disney character that caught my attention as a baby and toddler. Throughout growing up up to adolescence, it never dawned on me to have that passion for Disney as aforementioned.

Women's section. This was the third location of the Vinylmation wall, the first two in the opposite side.

I won't mention the other reasons yet, maybe in a later post. But for this post the connection between Pluto and the store is simple: more access to park Pluto merchandise meant more interest into the cartoon pup that I didn't have before.

All the props will be sent to Orlando, presumably to other Disney outlets or to Theme Part Connection.

And until the peak in 2004, when I was in the stressful transition of starting middle school and adjusting to newer responsibilities....I wouldn't say I was depressed per say in a clinical sense, but I certainly was in a despondent state. This all changed in 2004...well I might also make that a separate post. But something happened that time that solidified my love for Pluto since then.

Puppy! 

So after that particular event in 2004 and everything else that led up to that point in time, I began to feel the sensation of obsession. I just NEEDED Pluto merchandise. What I could find in the parks was not enough, I remember. Just like nowadays, available Pluto-related items were far and few in between. And what I really liked, particularly the more expensive like a watch or the three foot resin Pluto statue that stands as a holy grail of mine to this day, was of course out of my monetary reach. Then I remembered: the Character Premiere.

I actually liked how this came out. Blurred the faces for obvious reasons.

Sure enough, over the years, my intermittent Sunday trips to the store would consist of finding anything Pluto, sometimes being lucky and walking out with more than one item like a shirt or a plush. One of my favorite Pluto items found there in fact was a 36" pillow plush on sale for $15, originally on sale for $33. I have one I use sometimes as a pillow when my regular pillow is drying out after a spin in the wash, and another just for the heck.

....

As I'm talking through and editing the pictures in, I can remember all the times in meeting new people and old friends, like a Sunday gathering, talking about their daughters or how difficult work is or what else is going on in their lives. As I've discussed, my interest in the parks and Pluto would've never been a thing without the DCP. But...I really desire to continue on with other reasons yet they are more personal. Reasons that I cannot divulge on a public blog like this. Reasons that reveal ugly truths.

But I will say that it was most certainly the fact that it was my one closest source of a Disney fix that wasn't in Kissimmee that this closure upsets me the most, along with events that transpired resulting the forthcoming closure.

I walked out today crestfallen at the sad state the store was in, and thought I'd pay the apparent replacement, a Toys 'R' Us outlet across DCP, a visit. I couldn't. Overpriced, mediocre selection and even broken items made me realize it was definitely not the same. Why did I even bother? And with other shops in the mall that I visited long gone or suddenly closed (Le Gourmet Chef literally closed up and left, their cashier centerpiece complete with their logo sitting abandoned)... there was likely no reason to come back to the outlet mall again.

Side view. I'm definitely going to miss the cheesy, tacky theater exterior. #Childhood

I'll probably update this post later on if I remember another memory connection or a story to tell. For now, I think I'm going to end it here.

Thanks for the wonderful memories. It's been fun, and I'll relish them all.

I really want that Pluto cutout.

~